Future of technology on display at IT fair

There was more than love in the air at the Indiana Memorial Union Tuesday afternoon, with the electronic hum of dozens of gadgets on display for the annual UITS Information Technology Fair, "Making IT Happen!"\nMore than 1,000 people wandered through the Frangipani Room to check out some of the latest products from Apple, Dell and Microsoft, shoot the breeze with UITS consultants, or just play a quick game of "Call of Duty 2" on Xbox 360.\n"We want to make students more aware of some new and ongoing services available to them here," UITS Events Manager Diane Jung said.\nOne new group that attended this year's fair was the IU Gaming Club, which had an Xbox 360 and several high-end gaming PCs on display.\n"We're mostly PC players, but some console too," said the club's Vice President Aaron "Scopes" Sarazan. "We're trying to get the word out about our 200-person LAN events every semester."\nBut the IT Fair wasn't all fun and games. Several students from the School of Informatics were on hand to show off the projects they've been working on all year -- some of which could be worth big bucks after graduation.\nSenior Erik Johnson helped put together the Web site for Baron Hill's upcoming congressional campaign, which has opened several doors for him in Washington, D.C.\n"If he gets elected we've made a lot of connections," Johnson said. "People in Washington are coming up to him and asking him who put his site together."\nSenior Brad Weismann created a program called Net Defender to better help parents control what their children view online.\n"Something like Net Nanny blocks specific Web sites and it's difficult to use for parents who aren't so net savvy," he said. "Net Defender blocks the Internet at certain times if you don't want your kid online at 3 a.m."\nWeismann is also working on giving parents remote control of the program, from work -- for example -- in case their child arrives home early and they don't want him or her online.\n"There's a lot of parents interested in this," he said. "If someone wants it I'd be willing to sell the code."\nAttendees were impressed with the sheer variety of technology on display.\n"I just came to look at the Apple stuff in between classes, but a lot of this stuff is pretty tight," freshman Marc Momcilovich said.\n"Making IT Happen!" will be held at each of the other IU campuses starting this week and running until the end of March.